It's our seventh foray into the cuisine of Springfield (or rather, Albuquerque), and it's a refreshingly unique take on a ballpark classic: the hot dog. Do mesquite grilled onions, mango salsa, and jalapeño relish come together to make a wiener worth ending a hunger strike over? Let's find out!
Ingredients
Isotope Dogs Ingredients:
1000 g ribeye steak, cubed
100 g bacon, chopped
18 g kosher salt
1 ½ g pink curing salt
230 g ice water
10 g paprika
6 g garlic powder
4 g white pepper
4 g onion powder
Natural sausage casings
Hot dog buns
Jalapeno Relish (see recipe below)
Mesquite Grilled Onions (see recipe below)
Mango Salsa (see recipe below)
Jalapeno Relish Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic
10 jalapenos, seeds + stems removed
½ Cup white vinegar
½ Cup water
¼ Cup granulated sugar
1 ½ tsp kosher salt
Mesquite Grilled Onions Ingredients:
1 Tbsp neutral oil
1 large Vidalia onion, sliced into ½” thick pieces
Mango Salsa Ingredients:
1 large ripe mango, diced
½ red onion, finely chopped
Juice of 1 lime
½ tsp chili powder
¼ Cup loosely packed cilantro leaves, chopped
To taste kosher salt
Method
Serves: 2-4
Isotope Dogs Method:
Place the meat grinding equipment and food processor blade in the freezer for at least 1 hour before using.
Place the steak and bacon on a sheet tray. Freeze the meat for 15-20 minutes or until firm.
Meanwhile, combine the salt, curing salt, and remaining spices in a small bowl. Whisk to combine the mixture.
Grind the frozen meat through the largest setting/plate of the meat grinder. Make sure that for every 4 pieces of chuck, add 1-2 pieces of bacon.
Transfer the ground meat to a bowl and add the spice mixture to the ground meat and fold to incorporate.
Grind the meat mixture, through the smallest setting/plate.
If the mixture is too sticky to work with, refrigerate for 15-20 minutes.
Add about half of the meat mixture to the bowl of a food processor, along with about half of the ice water and pulse until the farce is sticky and homogeneous. Repeat with the remaining ground meat and water.
Cover the meat and refrigerate for 24 hours.
Soak the sausage casing in warm water for 30 minutes.
Thread the sausage casing onto the meat extruder attachment. Fill the casingings with the cured farce.
Twist the filled sausages into hot dog lengths and poke small holes in the casing to prevent any unwanted blowouts.
Transfer the hot dog links to a sheet tray and refrigerate them uncovered for 2 hours.
Preheat the smoker to 175 °F and fill with your desired wood chips/pellets (we used mesquite wood pellets).
Smoke the hot dogs for 45 minutes - 1 hour or until the internal temperature reaches 150 °F.
Either grill or pan-sear the hot dogs for 4-5 minutes when ready to serve.
Serve the Isotope Dogs inside of a hot dog bun and top with jalapeno relish, grilled onions, and mango salsa.
Jalapeno Relish Method:
Add the garlic cloves to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the garlic is minced.
Add the jalapenos and pulse until the mixture is finely chopped.
Transfer the jalapeno mixture to a heat safe bowl.
Combine the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt in a medium pot. Bring the mixture to a simmer.
Pour the vinegar solution over the jalapenos. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature
Cover and refrigerate the relish until ready to serve or up to 2 weeks.
Mesquite Grilled Onions Method:
Preheat the smoker to 500 °F and fill with mesquite pellets or heat a charcoal grill with mesquite wood chips.
Thoroughly coat the onions in the oil.
Add the onions to the preheated smoker/grill and cook for 4-5 minute or until charred. The onion should take on a bit of color by the time they’re done cooking.
Dice the cooked onions and reserve until ready to serve.
Mango Salsa Method:
Combine the ingredients in a medium bowl and fold to combine thoroughly.
Reserve until ready to serve.